Charts and notes of USC player snap participation in the Arizona game

Shotgun Spratling

10/20/2016

Fourteen players participated in a season-high number of plays while 12 starters played a season low. Jabari Ruffin finally got in on defense. The season debut of John Plattenburg while Stevie Tu'ikolovatu didn't start.

Couple of quick notes to go with the USC-Arizona participation breakdown chart:

- Players that returned from injury: Zach Banner, Taylor McNamara, Jabari Ruffin, Jonathan Lockett, Ykili Ross, John Plattenburg. Jamel Cook, Velus Jones Jr. and Vavae Malepeai returned from injuries during the week but did not play.

- Players that made their USC debut: Roy Hemsley.

- Players that made their season debut: Roy Hemsley, John Plattenburg, Grant Moore.

- USC used 64 players in the game with snap counts ranging from Chad Wheeler's team-high 73 snaps to Chris Tilbey's four punts.

Never the Same

With the return of Zach Banner from an ankle injury, USC had a full eight-man rotation on the offensive line and the Trojans used that to their advantage. The temperatures were soaring, but the offensive line stayed rested by rotating every drive. In fact, the first time that USC used the same five-man line was when backups Jordan Austin, Khaliel Rodgers, Roy Hemsley, Chuma Edoga and Chris Brown took the field for the victory formation kneel down to end the game.

Left tackle Chad Wheeler and center Nico Falah were the exceptions to the constant rotations. Both played the first 65 offensive snaps before giving way to the backups when the Trojans got the ball for the first time in the fourth quarter.

The backups produced some strong yards per play numbers in their limited action. The offense averaged 15.5 yards on Khaliel Rodgers’ 11 plays and 13.1 on the eight plays Jordan Austin and Roy Hemsley were in on that USC tried to gain yardage (excluding the kneel down). Those numbers are mostly due to Dominic Davis’ 85-yard run, but even without that run, the offense still put up 8.5 ypp on Rodgers’ other 10 plays. Zach Banner and Chuma Edoga were the tackles on the Davis run and each finished with ypp numbers above eight.

Better for the Regular

USC brought Jalen Greene into the game just twice in the first three quarters — an incomplete double pass attempt and a Greene run out of the Wildcat formation. Those two plays netted -2 yards combined.

In the fourth quarter, Greene got in the receiver rotation on the outside with the rest of the backups. He participated in seven plays — five runs and two passes, including a 12-yard reception made by him. On those seven plays, USC averaged 23.6 yards per play. Sometimes it’s better when you don’t try to get fancy.

Hawkins vs. Tell Becomes Hawkins & Tell

Chris Hawkins and Marvell Tell III continued to rotate in and out based on the opponents’ substitutions. They did that once more during the first four drives of the game against Arizona prior to Leon McQuay III injuring his groin. Tell played 12 of the first 20 snaps at the safety spot opposite McQuay with Hawkins getting the other eight, but after the injury, Hawkins moved over to the strong safety spot and played beside Tell until the fourth quarter when the backups got some time.

In comparing the two safeties, Hawkins finished with a team-high five tackles and forced a fumble for one of the four takeaways the USC defense had. Tell had two tackles. With the two safeties playing together so much, the ypp numbers aren’t likely to have much variation, but the 22 plays they didn’t play together led Hawkins to a 3.7 ypp versus Tell’s 4.8.

USC’s defense allowed 5.7 ypp with McQuay on the field. The defense was at its best, in terms of ypp, when John Plattenburg was on the field in his first appearance of 2016. Arizona averaged just 1.7 ypp on the 11 snaps Plattenburg participated. In comparison, the defense allowed 6.2 ypp in Matt Lopes' 18 snaps and 12.2 in the six plays that Ykili Ross participated.

Stevie Doesn’t Start?

Before the game, Stevie Tu'ikolovatu sat on the bench by himself. It looked as if he was pondering something. Maybe it was why he wasn’t starting?

It’s something that definitely caused us to pause and ponder. Why was USC’s dominant veteran nose tackle not beginning the game at the position? Josh Fatu was starting. Did the coaching staff want a more mobile defensive tackle to start the game? If so, they must have altered their game plan quickly because Tu’ikolovatu was back on the field for Arizona’s second drive and third and half of the fourth.

Tu’ikolovatu ended up playing 33 snaps to Fatu’s 26. He was more productive with three tackles to Fatu’s two and with a 3.3 ypp production compared to the 5.1 when Fatu was on the field.

After the game when asked why he didn’t start, Tu’ikolovatu smiled and said, “Just not good enough. Maybe next week.”

Only if the Trojans are smart.

Subs and Such

USC used a season-high 30 defensive players. It rotated in part due to the smoldering temperatures on the field, but the Trojans kept a primary rotation of 13 players in the first two and a half quarters. It wasn’t until they unloaded the benches that there began to be a lot of moving in and out.

Before the sub gates opened, it was 11 starters, Chris Hawkins and Stevie Tu’ikolovatu with a couple of exceptions:

- Jack Jones did get two plays on the first drive after Iman Marshall made a mistake and allowed Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate to get to the sideline for a big play on the first snap.

- Olajuwon Tucker gave both Uchenna Nwosu and Porter Gustin short one- to two-play breaks before starting to get some reps late in the third quarter.

- Malik Dorton played two snaps on the goal line in the second quarter when USC went to its “base” defense.

- Rather than Dorton being the backup defensive end behind Rasheem Green, it was Christian Rector. Rector played seven snaps in the second quarter, teamed up with Josh Fatu. (Another reason to wonder why Fatu started.)

What was surprising about the substitutions in the first two and a half quarters was that USC abandoned its down-and-distance subs this game. Senior linebacker Quinton Powell wasn’t used on third down just three days after defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast said he liked what Powell was doing in those situations:

“I think it's fit him really well to be able to come in and match up skill set wise on some of the team's better skill players…He’s done a nice job for us and he'll continue to play more as the season goes on.”

USC made only one defensive line substitution for a third-down situation in the first half, bringing Rasheem Green in to help the Trojans get off the field. In fact, USC made only two in-drive substitutions of defensive linemen in the first half. The opposition having only one drive longer than five plays in that span definitely played a part.

One Play Adoree’

For the second week in a row, Adoree' Jackson was lined upon offense for one play, but if you blinked you missed it. On first play after Steven Mitchell Jr.’s injury, USC inserted Jackson into the slot and tried to take a shot. The coaching staff may have been trying to change the mood of the team after seeing a well-liked teammate limp off with a knee injury, so they decided to try a deep ball.

We can’t tell for sure from the broadcast copy, but Jackson looks to run a deep route in the seam on the left. Darnold looks to Jackson’s side first before turning his attention to JuJu Smith-Schuster and heaving it his way on the right side. Smith-Schuster gets his hands on it, but can’t come down with it..

With the incompletion, you may have missed that No. 2 was in on offense.

Elder First-Timer

For the first time this season, the USC coaching staff gave Jabari Ruffin an opportunity to rush the quarterback coming off the edge at the Predator. As important as Ruffin has been on special teams, he had not played a single down of defense this year until Saturday.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Ruffin pulled down tight end-turned-quarterback Matt Morin for a three-yard loss for his only tackle of the game. He participated in the next seven plays and finished with a team-best 1.0 ypp on his eight defensive snaps.

Ruffin wasn’t the only Trojan to get his first offensive or defensive snaps of the season. Pie Young had played in five of the first six games, but had not played defense until Saturday. John Plattenburg, Grant Moore and Roy Hemsley got their first action of the year. Dominic Davis got in for the first time in a month. Oluwole Betiku got in for the second week in a row. John Houston Jr. and Connor Murphy get a lot of reps on special teams, but played defense for only the third time this year. Khaliel Rodgers actually got his first offensive action of the year after playing 15 snaps on defense in the season opener at Alabama.

Base Camp Uninhabitable

USC was in its nickel defense for all but three plays on Saturday, using its “base” defense with three down defensive lineman twice at the goal line and then on one random fourth quarter first down play in the middle of a drive.

Top Play Counts

USC won the total play battle with Arizona with 78 offensive snaps to the Wildcats’ 70, but the disparity of plays could have been much, much more. In the first half, it was. USC ran 51 offensive plays in the first half, including 27 in the first quarter while Arizona run just 28 in the first half. In the second half, the roles were flipped with the Trojans running just 27 in the second half and Arizona piling up 42 offensive snaps.

With USC blowing out Arizona before the halftime bell even rang, it’s understandable why that flip occurred. It also is the reasoning behind 12 starters, with the inclusion of part-time starter Steven Mitchell Jr., all finishing with season-low snap counts.

That made this week’s participation trivia on Twitter a difficult task for you guys to guess who finished with the most total snaps. It ended up being Chad Wheeler. Wheeler, Sam Darnold and Nico Falah each played the first 65 offensive snaps, but Wheeler being in for extra-point attempts and field goal attempts pushed him to the top of all players with 73 total snaps (10 less than he had the week before when he wasn’t the most used player. Darnold and Falah finished tied for the second most with Darreus Rogers fourth with 61 total snaps.

Adoree’ Jackson played 58 total snaps — the most by a defensive player and offensive lineman Damien Mama rounded out the top five with 56 total plays, including 12 on special teams.

John Houston Jr. remains the special teams champ with a team-high 20 snaps, followed by receiver Michael Pittman with 19 special teams snaps.

Tight End Triangle

The return of Taylor McNamara allowed the tight end triangle to get weird once again. USC opened the game with a two tight end set, but instead of using its starter, McNamara, it chose to start Daniel Imatorbhebhe and Tyler Petite. McNamara played just two snaps on the opening 10-play touchdown drive. He got both of the tight end snaps on the second drive and then split USC’s second touchdown drive with the two younger tight ends.

Throughout the game, the tight end rotation varied, but McNamara played the entire fourth quarter with the backups, which allowed him to surpass the other tight ends in snap count. McNamara finished with 42 offensive snap count, gaining 7.6 yards per play on the offensive attempts. Tyler Petite had 39 plays for a 7.7 average and the lone touchdown receiver of the group, Daniel Imatorbhebhe, finished with a 7.3 ypp on a position-low 23 offensive snaps.

Get in Formation

For the first time this season, USC’s most used formation wasn’t its three-wide, 11-personnel look. Maybe it was because of Steven Mitchell Jr.’s injury or maybe the Trojans just thought they could maul Arizona in the trenches (They did.), but USC went with its two-tight-end sets for 28 plays to their traditional three wides on 21 snaps.

Both formations were successful with USC averaging 6.61 yards per play out of the two-tight-end look and doing even better out of the three wides, gaining 11.62 yards per play. The Trojans were particularly good running the ball with three wides, rushing for 125 yards on seven carries (17.86). They actually passed the ball for a better average when they were in the two-tight-end sets, throwing for 83 yards on nine dropbacks (9.22).

USC again used the Chuma Edoga-as-a-tight-end formation, but it wasn’t as successful as last week, gaining 20 yards on six plays, including a new wrinkle with a two-receiver set and a tight end on the other side of Edoga, rather than him being the only tight end. The Trojans also used Reuben Peters in the F-back spot more frequently than they have in the past, using it 10 times.

The final kneel down play has been eliminated from the yardage totals and the yards per play here, but included in the total plays and snap counts for individual players.